KB: "One of the many things I have questioned about a KC south shaft aimed at something in particular (i.e. Orion belt stars) is the issue of the change in the position of Orion over a period of time. If we are encouraged to accept the shaft alignment theory, especially with such exact standards, do we also need to admit that the Ancient Egyptians during the Old Kingdom were either ignorant of or unconcerned about the slow but steady change of the location of the belt stars over a long period of time?"


Exact standards??? Its only a question of knowing the angle of incline for the top ends of the shafts to determine what area of the sky they were facing.


The middle star in Orion's belt changed altitude by about 1/10 of a degree from the beginning to the end of Khufu's reign, which is hardly measurable with the simple equipment the AE surveyors had at their disposal, so I doubt they would have noticed any difference during Khufu's reign.


Over a century however, its altitude due south changed by about 1/2 deg., (about the dia. of the full moon) and at its rising, was drifting along the eastern horizon northwards by about the same amount. The rising of Sirius was drifting along the horizon by about 4/10 of a deg every 100 years.

If they had been carefully following the risings of 'hour-stars' for a century before Khufu, then its possible they noticed these changes, but there is little textual evidence from before Khufu's reign, so its impossible to say one way or the other. Its only after hundreds of years when if for example, a new temple was built over the ruins of an old temple, but was still oriented to the same rising or setting star, that a really noticeable difference would be apparent, but even if they did notice, it does not mean they understood precession.


See here for my earlier post on precession and the OCT: [www.hallofmaat.com]



KB: "One one hand we have an enormous effort to construct a tomb that was obviously (and as indicated by later texts) intended to be operational for eternity, but on the other hand we have a shaft that will aim at the supposed target for only a limited period of time. It seems unlikely to me that the designers would knowingly impose a time limt to the function of the so-called 'star shafts'. So do we need to conclude that the designers of Khufu's pyramid were unaware of the long term changes in the sky?"


Maybe.


KB: "This question is in addition to the rather problematic issue of the 'star shafts' being only effective -- assuming they are alignment devices -- for a few minutes of the night or day. This, of course, is contrary to later PT text which calls for the King to have complete freedom to come and go as he pleases."



The PTs have numerous ways the king could ascend to the sky, in fact I lost count of the number of methods of ascension. Its pointless to make hard and fast rules, on what options were available to the king - the royal afterlife beliefs were a complex weave of many threads with many options.


Rather than limiting the king only to certain times when a star / star pattern visibly aligned with a shaft, perhaps the shafts were 'targeting' specific areas of the sky, 'Enclosures / Mansions' - associated with significant stars or star patterns when they reached their highest point in the sky - for example there are references to the 'Enclosure / Mansion of Sah' (eg. CT 469). In the PTs there is one mention of Sah (sAH, 'Orion') that has the O49 'town' det.: "I have gone up on the ladder, with my foot on Sah (sAH, 'Orion' with O49 'town det) and my arm is in elevation. I have grabbed onto Thighs-Forward's rope and my arm has been received at the great place. (Nt 272b)


Another example from the PTs, specifically associates a northern celestial 'enclosure' with the the king: "Pepi is an Imperishable Star, son of the great sky that is in the midst of Selket's enclosure.....Pepi is a star. The Sun's aegis is over this Pepi..... (P 511) We know from later depictions that Selket was in the northern sky near the large distinctive asterism, the Plough / 'Big Dipper' (msxtiw).


The king in his celestial realm, would then 'visit' these 'Enclosures / Mansions' from his 'House of Eternity' at the appropriate season. The king could accompany Sah across the southern sky (P 38, N 9), and as Dual King he also had his place as an Imperishable Star in the 'Marsh / Field of Rest / Offerings' in the northern sky.

CT



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/03/2007 06:17AM by Chris Tedder.